


Don't Leave

by PaintedOak



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Character Death, F/M, It gets sad in here, too late confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 16:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14312310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintedOak/pseuds/PaintedOak
Summary: Nepeta takes Karkat down in the meteor to tell him something. Unfortunately, for the both of them, it'll be the last thing said between them.





	Don't Leave

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this after wondering what I was going to do for this year's 4/13. Then I realized I have a really old Kar/Nep story that I could rewrite. And so, here we are!

“I wanna tell you something. But not here,” she said. She clutched her silly blue hat between her hands, a light blush on her cheeks. She looked nervous. And as I looked at her, I found myself curious. What could be so important to her that she would look so unsure of herself? Nothing she could know would affect our situation now. We would still be trapped in the Veil, still on the run from Jack.

  
So my curiosity won out, and I nodded. She took in a deep breath, and turned on her heel to lead me out. I followed behind her, watching her blue cat tail sway behind her. For a moment, I found myself mesmerized by the swing of it. It was interesting how she was able to sew the tail onto her coat in such a way that made it look like it belonged there. Like it was actually attached to the base of her spine. Unbidden, an image rose up in my mind of her naked, a blue tail curling over her back, looking at me suggestively and whoa where did that come from?

  
Tearing my eyes away with a blush, I started paying more attention to my surroundings. It seemed like Nepeta was leading me deep into the meteor, deeper than we had ever explored before. The sounds of the walls settling into the rock echoed through the halls, creating a creepy atmosphere. This combined with the oddity that she would take me this far away from the others caused paranoia to start seeping into my mind. What was her game? Was she going to show me some freaky thing she’d found? Was she going to dispose of me like the shitty leader I was? Was she hungry enough to eat me?

  
The sound of the walls creaking brought me out of my spiraling thoughts. And just in time too. Nepeta had stopped, facing away from me some distance away. Half of me wanted to close the distance between me and her, but the other half warned me that if she did attack, then I might last a little longer if I was farther away.

  
“Okay,” she started quietly. “I guess here’s far enough.”

  
“Far enough for what?” I asked, my voice wavering only slightly.

  
Apparently, “slightly” was just enough, because Nepeta turned around to face me, confusion on her face.

  
“Karkat? Why are you shaking?”

  
“I uh….”

  
She blinked, keeping her confused gaze on me. I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible (which, by the way, when surrounded by creaking walls and in front of a huntress is not as easy as you’d think) as she scrutinized my every movement. Suddenly her face lit up in amusement, as if she had discovered the best punch line to a joke.

  
“You think I’m gonna hurt you!” she laughed. “Oh Karkat, no, I would never hurt you.” She gave me a calming smile.

  
“Oh. Okay.” I don’t feel totally convinced, but okay. “So why are we down here? So far from civilization?” I look around pointedly at the walls.

  
“Oh. Um. I guess I just didn’t want anyone else to hear,” she shrugged.

  
Hear my screams, more like. “Okay. So what did you want to tell me?”

  
Nepeta lowered her gaze to the floor before closing her eyes. She took in a deep breath, seemingly centering herself. As I watched, I found her face becoming more and more serene. And more and more… pretty. She was pretty…? Huh. Weird.

  
Shaking out of my thoughts, I became increasingly aware of the volume of the creaking around us. It seemed like it was getting more frequent and much, much louder. That couldn’t be good. I looked around uneasily, examining the walls for anything out of place.

  
“Hey Nepeta…?” I started. Nepeta opened up her eyes to lock with mine and frowned.

  
“You’re not still worried I’m going to eat you, are you?” she chastised.

  
“No, fuck, listen,” I shot back. Our eyes wandered the halls for minute before coming back together. “I don’t think we’re safe here.” She nodded, looking troubled.

  
“I guess we can find somewhere else,” she suggested slowly. I nodded in agreement, turning to lead the way out. The faster we can get out of here, the better.

  
“KARKAT!” her shriek was drowned out by the screech of the ceiling above me giving out. I gawked wide-eyed at the rapidly descending debris. Then, a blur of green and blue appeared out of the corner of my eye, and I found myself flying down the hall. A cacophony of sound fills the hall, louder than any battlefield we had ever been on. The second I stop rolling, I shoot back up on my feet. Trying to peer through the dust, I look for her.

  
“Nepeta!” I call out. I start trudging forward, my heart racing. That had been a close call, but what about Nepeta? “Nepeta! Answer me!” I can’t hear her, I can’t see her, and far too soon I’m walking into a wall of rock and twisted metal.

  
“Nepeta….” I look at the pile of rubble, trying to figure out the best rocks to dig out first to try to dig to her. One by one, I move the pieces of meteor out of the way. “Nepeta, answer me damnit!” I dig and dig, quickly becoming more and more fearful for her. Where is she? Why isn’t she answering? She needs to answer. She needs to be okay.

  
Finally, I find a dusty blue tail among the rubble, and I let out a breath. I found her. There was something, at least. I dig around it, aghast to find green splattered on the rocks I was pulling off of her. Not soon enough, I had unearthed her, carefully bringing her in close to his chest. I gazed up and down her body, assessing her injuries- broken bones, bruises, and blood. Way too much blood. Her breathing was shallow. Her eyes were open, but unfocused.

  
“Nepeta?” I breathed. No response. “Nepeta?” I tried again, shaking her slight frame gently. She started coughing weekly, blood drippling at her lips. I was torn between helping her into a better position and bringing her in closer. Like I could hide her from the pain. Like I could save her.

  
Because like this… I knew she wouldn’t last much longer.

  
She relaxed back into my arms, gazing softly up into my eyes. “Karkat? She asked quietly.  
“Hey Nep,” I whispered.  
“Why-why are you crying?” she asked. I blinked, raising a hand to touch my face, surprised when I found red painting his fingers along with the green.

  
“I…” To tell the truth, I didn’t know. I don’t know why I had wanted to protect the girl in my arms, or why I was suddenly picturing her in very compromising positions at odd times. Or why she was in my thoughts at all. She usually drove me insane, she shouldn’t be doing this to me. And yet, here we were, me holding her body as red dripped from my eyes and green from my body.

  
“What did you want to tell me?” I ask instead. She had wanted to say something earlier, and by the gods I was going to give her the opportunity to say it. If she was going to die for these words, then she would say them, god damnit.

  
Her mouth dropped slightly, and her eyes lost their focus. For a paralyzing second, I thought I had lost her, but then they were clear again. She smiled through the pain, chuckling lightly.

  
“Well I guess,” she breathed. “We came all this way….” She panted lightly, trying to catch breath that she wasn’t going to get.

  
Unconsciously, I tightened my arms around her. Her next words are so quiet I can’t really hear them. But I see her lips move in such a familiar way, innately understood from all those romcoms I used to watch. I see her lips move, and I know what she says:

  
“I’m flushed for you.”

  
At first, I’m shocked. I hadn’t expected that. Well, I guess I had, I’d known about her crush for some time now. But I never thought she would actually come out and admit it. I’d always thought her feelings would stay hidden, never to see the light of day. Never articulated in words out loud. And especially not to me.

  
I’m jolted back to the present, and I realize I’ve done nothing. I have to do something, say something. I can’t just leave her words with nothing.

  
Gently, I brush her bangs from her forehead to press a kiss to her rapidly cooling forehead, and give her the only answer I know how to give, straight from one of my favorite movies.

  
“I know.”


End file.
